Obama takes to the road to sell healthcare -- again
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President Obama will take to road this week to sell his healthcare insurance overhaul package to the American people, whom polls show remain dubious about the package.
Obama is scheduled to travel to Iowa City, Iowa, on Thursday, the White House announced. By then, it is expected that he will have signed the healthcare overhaul legislation that the House passed on Sunday.
[UPDATE: White House spokesman Robert Gibbs tells reporters that Obama expected to sign the healthcare bill on Tuesday.]
Many probably woke up Monday morning to the headlines of the historic House vote and thought that healthcare, which has blasted at high decibels through the body politic, could now fade into background noise.
Not a chance in this midterm election year, and not even likely in the run-up to the presidential election cycle of 2012.
First will come Obama’s formal signing ceremony, tentatively set for Tuesday. That could be the same day that the Senate begins its work on a package of amendments, also passed by the House, and whose passage has been promised by Senate Democratic leaders.
Politically, Senate Democrats will have to make their pledge good or the party’s cocktail mixers will become very uncomfortable. Look to Republicans to try to make the Senate battle as long and as dilatory as possible in the hopes of keeping the healthcare issue alive politically.
Republicans have read the polls and know that Americans are leery of the bill. But Democrats, who read just as many polls, know that Americans have said they liked most of the parts of the healthcare package, but were dismayed by the overall bill and the process by which it has been passed.
Hence, Obama’s trip back to Iowa, a state that gave life to his presidential aspirations.
Obama has already made more than 50 speeches to sell healthcare, but this one will be a bit of a victory lap.
The president likely will remind people of the historic nature of healthcare reform, which has simmered on the public burner for a century. He will also stress his favorite selling points – the consumer issues that limit predatory insurance company practices.
Like all Democrats this election year, he will talk about government projections that the bill will cut the federal deficit by more than $1.3 trillion over 20 years – a pitch to those conservatives and independents worried about the effect of spending on future generations.
In an bipartisan display, ironically, Democrats and Republicans are united in using healthcare reform to raise campaign funds for this and future campaigns. Expect that to accelerate as the elections draw close.
Even after the dust settles from this battle in Congress, there will be lawsuits galore, by individuals and states, challenging the constitutionality of the measure. That alone will keep the political mill churning.
-- Michael Muskal
